Jackson County Commissioners eyeing no-tax increase as they continue to put together the county’s budget for the fiscal year.
Jackson County’s current tax rate is $2.55 per $100 of assessed value. Jackson County Mayor Jim Morgan said the Budget Committee is looking at the numbers.
“This year we had a little bit of growth,” Morgan said. “We also had some expenditures last year that was not reocurring, so that helped. But we should be able to hopefully do it if there is nothing unforeseen with the same tax rate that we’ve been having.”
The county’s budget committee will review the proposed budget one final time during a work session scheduled for August 5. Morgan said the goal is to call a special-called meeting on August 11 for the full commission to approve the budget.
“Give them (Commissioners) a chance to oppose anything that they may see in the budget,” Morgan said. “Just kind of give them a chance to study it and look it over before we present it to the full county court.”
Though the kind of raise was not disclosed, Morgan said there are raises in the budget for county employees.
“It’s important because you lose people all the time,” Morgan said. “We don’t pay what we need to. It’s real hard to keep employees, but when you are on a limited budget and a small count, like we are, we don’t have the growth and stuff that some of the larger counties have. But it’s a problem for everybody.”
One reason the county had put off approving a budget was to hear from department heads and get more polished numbers. Morgan said the budget committee has put what it could in the budget for department heads. Morgan said though he previously served on the budget committee for ten years, putting the budget together as county mayor has been different.